


blame it on the moon

by ficklish



Category: Naruto
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Study, F/F, Feelings Realization, Unrequited Crush, kind of??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 15:13:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13102881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ficklish/pseuds/ficklish
Summary: Ino’s twelve when she realises she has a crush on her best friend.Ino's twelve when she realises her best friend has a crush on someone else.





	blame it on the moon

**Author's Note:**

> it's 3.50am and i don't know what this is exactly, but i've been having a lot of feelings about inosaku lately so this is the product of that + procrastinating uni work + urge to just write something
> 
> anyways, it's been years since i touched canon so this probably doesn't fit in with the actual timeline but also i don't care because canon is dead to me after what happened post ch698
> 
> title is from 'blame it on the moon' by katie melua

Ino lets Sakura pull her along as they race down the street. Ino’s not paying attention to where they’re going anyway. Her face feels too hot and she doesn’t think it’s from running, and her palms feel too sweaty but Sakura doesn’t seem to mind, her hand warm around Ino’s.

Sakura turns to flash Ino a huge, conspiratorial grin, her eyes crinkling against the afternoon sun. Ino makes a face at Sakura. Sakura’s answering laughter is snatched up by the wind, but for a startling second the moment seems to freeze. Ino stares.

Sakura’s cheeks are flushed and her hair is in a wild disarray, slipping from the headband Ino gave her and tangling with her lashes. Her eyes are a brilliant green, the colour of young, sun-dappled leaves, and they catch the light the way the gem her mother wears on a necklace does, so bright Ino has to look away, down to her sandals kicking up dust along the dirt road.

She feels breathless, and she’s not sure why. They haven’t even been running for that long.

“C’mon! In here,” Sakura says, and she stops so suddenly, Ino crashes into her back. They both tip forward with the impact, and Sakura’s free hand shoots out to brace against a stack of crates by the mouth of the alley just as Ino reaches out to grab onto Sakura with her free hand, both steadying each other. Ino meets Sakura’s eyes, heart racing—from the run, from the near miss, from something incredibly warm growing in Ino’s chest and heating her cheeks—and then she’s laughing. Sakura’s laughter joins hers a second later, and they stumble into the alley, practically hanging off of each other. They duck behind a tall row of crates, sinking to the ground in a giggling heap.

“Shh,” she says, around a laugh, swatting at Sakura’s arm, “ _Shh_ , Kiba’ll hear us.”

“You shush.” Sakura swats her back. She makes a valiant effort to stifle her laughter only to end up snorting in Ino’s face, doubling over and pressing her face against Ino’s shoulder. Ino doesn’t even know why they’re laughing, but she can’t stop and her face is starting to almost hurt from how hard she’s smiling. She rests her cheek on Sakura’s head and counts to ten in her mind.

“Okay,” Sakura says when Ino reaches eight, and she lifts her head. Her lips are trembling, threatening to crack a smile, but her eyes are determined. “Okay, I’m good.”

Ino’s almost tempted to make a funny face, just to test Sakura’s resolve, when they hear quiet footsteps turning down the alley. Sakura’s eyes widen and they both scoot silently back against the wall, deeper into the shadow of the crates.

“Kiba?” Ino mouths and Sakura shrugs, uncertain. Sakura’s hand is like a vice around Ino’s, but Ino can’t bring herself to mind, squeezing back just as tightly. She holds her breath as the footsteps draw closer…and then pass them altogether.

She lets herself breathe again, cracking a smile in Sakura’s direction, then releases Sakura’s hand and crawls forward to peek around the crates.

“Oh,” she whispers, “it’s just Sasuke.” And it doesn’t even matter if Sasuke sees them, because he’s never played with their group before—doesn’t even really talk or interact with anyone unless he’s forced to for class—and Ino doubts he’s about to start now. She turns, expecting Sakura’s expression to mirror her relief, but is instead met by wide green eyes, made even more vivid in contrast to the dark blush spreading over Sakura’s face and into her hairline.

“ _Sasuke-kun?_ ” Sakura squeaks, and she scrambles up beside Ino to peer at Sasuke’s slowly retreating back. “Oh my _god_ , I should ask him to join us! Wait no—I can’t let him see me right now!” She ducks back down quickly, dragging Ino down with her. “I probably look all messy and sweaty, ugh,” her hands fly up to her hair, undoing her headband and combing the loose strands back into place. Ino frowns at her.

“You’re—” _beautiful_ , Ino wants to say, because it’s true and Ino feels she has authority on this subject because she’s gorgeous herself, for one, and two, she’s grown up amongst flowers, and can say with absolute certainty that Sakura’s more beautiful than any cherry blossom—than any flower—Ino’s ever seen. But the word lodges in her throat, stuck behind an unfamiliar emotion that Ino can’t quite identify, nor find the words to express. So instead, she settles for, “You’re kidding me, right?”

Sakura blinks at her, clearly distracted, even as she continues fussing with her hair. Ino frowns harder, then smacks Sakura’s hands away, snatches the headband from her, and begins to smooth Sakura’s hair into her usual center part.

“You want to invite Sasuke? He doesn’t even talk to us!” Ino snaps, and she’s annoyed with Sakura in a way she’s never been before, but she doesn’t know _why_.

“Maybe he’s shy?” Sakura says. She tips her head back as Ino runs her fingers through her hair. The motion reminds Ino of her neighbour’s cat and how it always leans into Ino’s hand when she pets it, and it tempers the edge of annoyance Ino feels, softens the bite of her words when she replies, “He scowls at everyone all the time. _And_ he made Mari-chan cry when she tried to give him chocolates that one time.”

Sakura sounds almost defensive when she replies, “Did _he_ make her cry, or did she cry because he wouldn’t accept her chocolates? I mean, maybe he doesn’t like chocolates, maybe he’s allergic, maybe—”

“Maybe he’s just a butthead.”

“Ino!” Sakura scolds. When Ino finishes tying her headband, she turns and frowns at Ino. She looks so disappointed that Ino almost regrets what she’d said. Almost.

“He’s always by himself, it’s got to be lonely,” Sakura adds, and takes Ino’s hands in hers, squeezing a little, “I’m lucky enough to have you as a friend. Maybe Sasuke-kun needs a friend, too.”

And, Ino can’t really argue with that. Well, she _could_ point out that Naruto was always alone too, and that Sakura never wanted to invite _him_ , but then Ino herself had never thought to invite Naruto, and maybe pointing this out would be unfair. Maybe Sakura just wanted to do something nice for a boy who always seemed alone even when he was surrounded by a sea of admirers, and maybe one of these days Ino could follow her example and invite Naruto to one of their games.

Sakura is looking at her so earnestly, with Ino’s hands held tight in her lap, and Ino feels her face start to grow unbearably warm. She sighs, breaking eye contact.

“Fine,” she says, and is rewarded with Sakura throwing her arms around her. Ino has barely any time to hug her back, before Sakura’s pulling away, and her smile turns shy, cheeks colouring again.

“Do you um, do you think he’ll agree? What if he thinks this is childish, what if he thinks _I’m_ childish for playing?” Sakura looked so worried, so fixated on Sasuke’s opinion, that Ino feels her earlier annoyance return with a vengeance, only this time it’s directed at Sasuke. Sakura wasn’t very confident when Ino first befriended her, and it’s been Ino’s goal ever since to make Sakura realise her worth, to make her see herself through Ino’s eyes—a budding flower, petals like a cradle, hiding an entire universe of potential just waiting to bloom. Sakura’s gotten better, more confident over time; she’s beginning to trust her judgement and has started to stand up for herself.

Maybe she’s being too quick to judge, but Ino hates the way all this progress seems to come undone at the mere mention of Sasuke. She places her hands on Sakura’s shoulders and says, firmly, “If he thinks that, then he’s an idiot.”

Sakura looks torn between smiling in gratitude and objecting at Sasuke being called an idiot, and her expression makes Ino lose it all over again. She tips her head forward, laughing into the space between them, and a moment later, feels Sakura’s hand playfully smacking her arm.

“Y’know, the goal of hide-and-seek is to be stealthy.” Kiba’s voice, smug and too close, startles her, and she snaps her gaze up to find him crouching atop the stack of crates, peering down at them with a huge grin. Akamaru’s perched on his head like a strange headband, and yips once at them in greeting.

She rolls her eyes at Kiba. “Whatever, who else have you found?”

“Just Shikamaru. He got bored of trying to find a hiding place and took a nap on the academy rooftop instead.”

Ino’s not surprised. “I’ll be ‘it’ next round then.“

“Wait, why you? Shouldn’t it be Shikamaru?” Sakura asks.

“Because the lazy jerk would probably give up on finding us halfway through, and he wouldn’t even tell us, so we’ll end up hiding until our parents come looking for us thinking we’ve gone missing or something.” At Sakura’s look, Ino shrugs, “It’s happened before.”

Kiba snickers, then says, “Actually, Shikamaru says he’s done for the day, and I’ve gotta help my mum bathe the dogs tonight so I’ve gotta head back after I find Choji. We can pick this up tomorrow after class?”

“Sure,” Ino says and Sakura nods in agreement. Kiba flashes them something between a wave and a salute, then bounds off the crates and down the alley.

Ino rises off the ground, dusting the dirt off the knees of her pants, before offering Sakura a hand. She pulls Sakura up and on impulse, decides to keep hold of her hand. Sakura doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she doesn’t even seem to notice.

She’s staring off down the alley, the opposite side from where Kiba ran off towards, the side where Sasuke disappeared round the corner.

Ino tugs at her hand, half to prompt her to follow and half because she doesn’t have to be a genius to _know_ Sakura’s thinking about Sasuke and the fact sits, heavy like a rock, in the pit of her stomach.

Sakura blinks, then catches Ino’s gaze and smiles, something hopeful in her eyes. “I think I’ll ask Sasuke to join us tomorrow.”

Sakura’s smiles have always been contagious, but for the first time, Ino finds it difficult to smile back. Still, she manages one, and maybe it’s convincing enough even if it feels awkward on her face, maybe she’s a good enough actress that Sakura doesn’t realise something’s wrong, doesn’t comment on it.

She doesn’t want to consider that maybe Sakura’s just not paying enough attention, that maybe she’s so focused on someone else—on Sasuke—that Ino’s been bumped down to second place, to the periphery of her mind. 

So, she squeezes Sakura’s hand and fills their walk home with chatter, pretending not to notice the almost distracted hums Sakura replies with in place of actual interest, actual words. Pretends not to notice the knot, twisting in her chest, each time she sneaks a glance at Sakura and finds her eyes locked on a middle distance, a small, lingering smile lifting the corners of her lips.

Ino is known for being loud, brash. She’s not a coward, and if she was with anyone else, if it was anyone else ignoring her like this, she wouldn’t hesitate to call them out on it, wouldn’t hesitate to demand their attention.

But, just as it was earlier, she finds herself once again tongue tied, her throat closing up around emotions she can’t name. When they reach Ino’s house, Sakura’s says a hurried goodbye, whispers an “I can’t wait for tomorrow” excitedly against Ino’s cheek before she’s pulling out of the hug, pulling away, and then turning and heading down the block towards her house. Ino waves at Sakura’s back, waits even though Sakura doesn’t turn around this time.

Ino feels like Sakura had pulled _something_ from her chest, pulling till whatever it was that she’d taken was stretched to it’s limits and then some, and it’s the reason why Ino feels a twinge in her chest now with every breath.

That night, after her father tucks her in, Ino closes her eyes and sees Sakura’s face, opened in joy like a flower in bloom as they huddled behind the crates. She dreams of laughter stolen by the wind and carried back on a gentle breeze, and the feel of Sakura’s hand clasped tightly around hers.

Ino’s twelve when she realises she has a crush on her best friend.

* * *

“I like Sasuke, too,” Ino says, because it gets Sakura’s eyes on her and Ino’s desperate.

“ _Sasuke-kun_ ,” Ino coos, even as it turns her stomach, her eyes skipping over Sasuke entirely to land on Sakura, and she must be a decent actress at least, because she gets Sakura’s attention.

And then, she does everything she can to hold on to it.

**Author's Note:**

> i'll fight kishi on this bc ino was absolutely in love with sakura and only pretended to have a crush on sasuke to get sakura's attention
> 
> feedback/comments are always appreciated!


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